Battlestation Challenge Level
Reference Book: Star Wars Saga Edition Galaxy at War See also: GaW Bases and Battlestations The Battlestations that are designed using the system in this chapter are based around the station's Challenge Level (CL). A Battlestation's CL is a number between 1 and 20 that helps you to gauge how difficult adventures in the station should be and allows for quick construction without requiring too much worry about whether the encounters are too hard or too easy. It is important to select the CL early so that you can develop your Battlestation as you go rather than having to make decisions on the fly. A Battlestation's CL is very similar to the CL used for individual opponents such as Stormtroopers and TIE Fighters. However, unlike the CL of individual opponents, the CL of a station is merely an overarching guideline for determining attacks, defenses, and the Difficulty Class of Skill Checks. When designing a Battlestation as part of an adventure, the best approach is to build the station around the party rather than choosing a fixed CL and trying to construct a station to match. In other words, determine the station's CL by looking at the party's level. For a group of five characters, the Battlestation's CL should roughly equal the character's average level, although it can be higher for tougher adventures or lower for easier ones. Using the CL Throughout this chapter, you will find references to a Battlestation's CL as a way of assigning a Difficulty Class to a Skill Check or of crafting encounters that involve station personnel or Hazards. Always remember that the Battlestation's CL is the key to accurately gauging the toughness of a particular obstacle. For the most part, descriptions of individual locations, Hazards, encounters, and so on will explain how to use the Battlestation's CL when determining the challenge posed to the heroes. However, Gamemasters certainly will come up with ideas for obstacles that are not covered in this chapter. In such cases, the following guidelines might help you use the station's CL to design appropriate challenges. Skill Difficulties To determine to Difficulty Class of a Skill Check, find the Battlestation's CL in the far left column of the table. On each row of the table, the DCs are broken into five broad categories to describe the difficulty of the Skill Check: Easy, Medium, Moderate, Hard, and Heroic. Some Skill Checks have static DCs that are unrelated to the station's CL; for example, making a Climb check to scale a ladder has roughly the same DC no matter where the ladder is located. However, many Skill Check DCs vary based on the particular Battlestation. For example, the DC for opening a locked door with a Use Computer check might be much higher on a Battlestation that has a higher CL, owing to the fact that the station has significantly better security protocols and is likely to keep its defense systems up-to-date. This chapter frequently uses these five DC categories when referring to Skill Checks- for example, the text might say that an action requires a Moderate Mechanics check or a Hard Use Computer check. Simply consult the table, finding the row for your station's DC, and find the column for that category. The resulting number is the DC for that Skill Check. Battlestation Encounters When designing a combat encounter for a Battlestation, the rules are similar to those used for standard encounters. Since your station's CL should be close to the average party's level, multiply the CL by 3, then choose enemies and Hazards whose total combined CL is close to the tripled number. If you intentionally set the CL of the station higher than the average party level, you will create tougher encounters. So when using this system, keep in mind how closely the station's CL matches the average level of the heroes. Battlestation Hazards See also: Station Hazards Other Hazards that make attacks should use the Battlestation's CL to determine how much damage those attacks should deal. A Hazard, on average, should deal damage that is equal to 10 + one-half the Battlestation's CL. For example, each Hazard on a CL 8 Battlestation should deal an average of 14 points of damage. (Refer to the table below for the average damage roll associated with each game die. Choose a die multiple that comes to within 2 points of your target damage.) To make a roll with an average of 14 points of damage, use 3d8. Hazards that make attack rolls should include a bonus to the roll that is equal to 2 + the Battlestation's CL. For example, each Hazard on a CL 8 Battlestation should make attack rolls with a bonus of +10. When designing Hazards for a Battlestation, consider the defense bonuses of the party. In general, a Hazard should hit its target roll of 10 or higher on a d20 (Which represents a 55 percent chance). The Hazards on a CL 8 Battlestation, including the +10 bonus to Hazard attack rolls, would hit a character with a Reflex Defense of 20. Feel free to adjust these numbers when you design a Battlestation in order to make it fit your heroes' Defenses. Scaling the Rating Sometimes a Battlestation's CL is too high or too low for a party, especially if the station was designed without those specific characters in mind (Such as the stations in Adventure Modules). You can still use these stations as adventuring locales by making a few adjustments to accommodate your group of heroes. For Battlestations that are too easy, increase the station's CL, which has the effect of increasing the Skill Checks DCs, the bonus to Hazard attack rolls, and the damage dealt by Hazards. You can justify the increased difficulty as security system upgrades, new ownership and management, or simply the advancement of technology. For Battlestations that are too difficult for the heroes, reduce the station's CL (And, again, the Skill Check DCs, Hazard attack rolls, and Hazard damage). By keeping certain sections of the station off-limits to the party, you can plausibly explain why some areas are more difficult to access than others. In the same manner that Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca ventured only through certain sections of The Death Star, you can reduce a larger and more dangerous station to a simpler path that still provides a challenge as well as an epix backdrop. This methods works well with Battlestations intended for use over multiple adventures. When the heroes first encounter the station, they can explore an area that has a relatively low CL. When they return several adventures later, they can tackle new sections that have higher CLs and more appropriate challenges. Example Suppose your game's party consists of five 7th-level characters. At this point in the campaign, they should encounter a Battlestation with a CL of 7. This number will be used throughout the rest of the design process in this chapter.